Sean Condon, an organic dairy farmer from Crecora, County Limerick was recently announced as the winner of the Farming for Nature Public Choice Award 2022 at this year’s Burren Winterage Weekend award ceremony, following incredible enthusiasm and buy-in from the public to support this initiative. Sean farms approximately 140 acres of good grassland and runs an extensive dairy farming system, milking 50 cows once a day. External inputs on the farm are extremely low and Sean takes pride in managing a low-input, low intensity productive farm. Sean is the first dairy farmer to win this award.
The 5 nominees for the Farming for Nature Public Choice Award 2022 were a cross-section of this year’s most recent 15 Farming for Nature ‘Ambassadors’ who are adjudged to be managing their land and livestock in a way that really benefits nature in their farms and communities, following a rigorous selection process of interviews, farm visits and assessments by a panel of judges, which included Dr Shane Conway, Researcher at the University of Galway’s Rural Studies Centre working on the NRN Project. These 15 new Ambassadors, located throughout Ireland, include beef, sheep and tillage farmers who manage a wide range of valuable habitats including species-rich grasslands and heaths, wetlands, woodlands and hedgerows. You can watch a video about Sean Condon’s farm, as well as the other nominees here.
The NRN are delighted to have supported this inspiring initiative over the past 5 years.